"The cookbook is a collection of recipes gathered by Julie Thayer (with help from Lakshmi Guha) through her extensive travels with U.G. It was compiled in 2002 when U.G. was 84. He seemed amused by its appearance on the scene.!"

Excerpt from the UG Cookbook:

U.G. AND FOOD

U.G. Krishnamurti is 84 years old and in perfect health. He travels twice around the world every year, by himself, carrying his portable “kitchen” and a tiny suitcase. Wherever he is, he cooks his own meals, and often cooks for his friends. Everything he makes is delicious, but he states emphatically that we eat too much, and we are obsessed with natural foods and concepts of nutrition.

The pleasure movement, whether it is for food or love or work or the search for God - all cultural input, our conditioning - is there to keep the status quo in place. We need variety to amuse ourselves, to keep the “I” (that we think we are) intact, to keep our identity going. In nature there is no such need, says U.G. Animals do not need a variety of food. A variety of food is like a variety of girls. U.G. needs neither.

U.G. is in the “natural state.” He has tremendous energy and vitality, he can travel for days on end, he can talk for 24 hours straight with hardly a break— and yet he eats minimally. When a reporter once exclaimed, “U.G. you’re so incredibly good-looking and youthful!” he explained, laughing, “That’s because I don’t eat health food, I don’t take vitamins, and I don’t exercise!”